Emails suggest Treasury delayed alerting Congress to Tea Party targeting scheme

I'm sure this had nothing to do with the timing of last year's election...

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa on Wednesday displayed a string of emails showing his failed efforts to get an update from the Treasury Department inspector general’s office about its investigation into the IRS practice of targeting conservative groups who sought tax-exempt status.

Emails seeking the information date back to September 2012, six weeks before the November election.

At that point, the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration had promised an update.

Based on other evidence provided to the committee, the inspector general was aware of the IRS practice of targeting conservative groups with names that included “Tea Party” and “Patriot” and “9/12.”

Inspector General J. Russell George told Issa’s panel he withheld the information because he feared lawmakers would leak it to the public.

“When information is conveyed to the Hill, it is not aways retained by the Hill,” George testified Wednesday.

Uh, isn't that the point?